PEOPLE
TORONTO — Antonio Banderas says his emotional state from having a heart attack a few years ago influenced his award-winning performance in the Pedro Almodovar film, “Pain and Glory.”
Banderas won the best actor award earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival.
Banderas told The Associated Press that drawing on personal experience has always helped him, but Almodovar stressed that he especially embrace it for the performance.
The 2017 cardiac event significantly changed his life. The 59-year old actor says family and friends became more important.
Banderas plays a film director with physical difficulties and a lifetime of regret in “Pain and Glory.” Parts of the story directly reflect Almodovar's life.
LOS ANGELES — Fans waiting for a “Girlfriends” reboot are getting a little tease: the cast of the early 2000s sitcom is reuniting on an episode of “black-ish.”Tracee Ellis Ross, one of the leading actors on “black-ish,” was also the star of “Girlfriends,” which ran from 2000 to 2008 and chronicled the lives of four black women living in Los Angeles.Ross teased the reunion on social media, posting a video of herself on the “black-ish” set with Golden Brooks, Persia White and Jill Marie Jones, as she squealed with delight. “Girlfriends” had a strong and loyal fan base, and some have lobbied it to return in some form — perhaps a movie.The episode will air Oct. 8 on ABC.
LONDON — Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has made a substantial donation for research into the treatment of multiple sclerosis at a center named after her late mother.The $18.8 million donation announced Thursday will be used for new facilities at a research center based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. The author's mother suffered from the disease and died at the age of 45.The new gift follows a major donation Rowling made in 2010 that started the Anne Rowling clinic at the university.Rowling said she is encouraged by advances being made and proud that the clinic is not only doing important research but has also provided “practical, on the ground support and care for people with MS.”The Harry Potter books have been a global sensation.
NEWARK, N.J. — “Jersey Shore” cast member Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino is now a free man.The 37-year-old reality television star's publicist says he was released from prison in Otisville, N.Y., around 8:30 a.m. Thursday.He took to Twitter shortly after his release, writing, “Turn up we free.”Sorrentino served about eight months for tax evasion. He and his brother pleaded guilty last year to tax offenses related to nearly $9 million in income. Marc Sorrentino was sentenced to two years in prison.At his sentencing last fall, Sorrentino told the judge he was trying to overcome years of drug and alcohol abuse.Sorrentino appeared on all six original seasons of “Jersey Shore” from 2009 to 2012, chronicling the lives of rowdy housemates in the town of Seaside Heights, New Jersey.
